2 of 8Keselowski and Co. pose for a photo after the team's big win in Chicago.

Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

3 of 8Carl Edwards leads a pack of cars.

Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

4 of 8Denny Hamlin fell in the standings after a 16th place finish.

Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

5 of 8Tony Stewart fends off Sam Hornish Jr.

Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

6 of 8Kyle Busch takes the inside on Sam Hornish Jr. Busch, who didn't make the chase, finished in fourth place.

Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

7 of 8Carl Edwards gets some gas and tires during a pit stop.

Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

8 of 8Jimmie Johnson, who took second place, leads a pack of cars.

Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

It was clearly pole sitter Jimmie Johnson's race to lose – and lose it he did after the final round of pit stops in the NASCAR Sprint Cup GEICO 400 at Chicagoland Speeedway, the first race in the season-ending Chase for the Championship.

For the majority of the race, Johnson appeared to be simply cruising, able at will to put at least a one-second lead over his nearest competitor, but after the last round of pit stops cycled through with about 25 laps to go in the 267-lap race,Brad Keselowski took the lead and padded it to more than three seconds over second-place Johnson. Johnson's Hendrick teammate Kasey Kahne was third, and Kyle Busch, who is not a chase contender, was fourth. Ryan Newman, also not in the Chase, was fifth.

“I don't know if we sped up or he slowed down,” Keseloswki said about Johnson. As far as drawing first blood in the Chase: “This feels like round one of a heavyweight title bout. It's great to have won, but there's a lot more to go.”

“We would have loved to have won the race, but we'll take second and go on,” Johnson said. Even had Johnson beat Keselowski out of the pits on the last stop, “I'm not sure I could have held him off.” Keselowski “was just better. Congratulations to those guys, they did an awesome job,” Johnson said.

Kahne echoed that. “Brad and Jimmie were just better than I was,” Kahne said. “It was a solid run for us – a nice start to the chase.”

As far as the Chase contenders, nine of the 12 finished in the top 13. Denny Hamlin, points leader at the Chase start, was running well but lost power on the last lap, apparently running out of fuel, finishing 16th. Two others who might be able to look back and wonder “what if:” Matt Kenseth actually had a shock absorber fall off of the left front of his Best Buy Ford, and though his crew was able to change it on a caution and keep him on the lead lap until near the end, he finished 18th.

But it was Jeff Gordon who really had a disastrous first Chase race: The throttle hung open on his DuPont Chevrolet, sending him hard in the turn one wall on lap 187. Gordon finished 35th, and while his crew worked on the car, he returned to the track with only nine laps to go, too bad for him since had he been able to complete a total of 12 laps, he could have made up two positions.

Dale Earnhardt, Jr., charged from the back after an engine change erased a strong qualifying effort, and was running with the leaders until late-race chassis changes “just made the car kid of average,” he said. He finished eighth. Danica Patrick, who started 41st, ended up in 25th after spending most of the race a lap down.

Keselowski is the new points leader with 2,056; second is Johnson, three back, and third is defending champion Tony Stewart, who finished sixth and is eight points back. Kahne, Hamlin and Clint Bowyer, who finished 10th, are tied for fourth, 15 points behind Keselowski.

Both Johnson and Kahne said it was too early to handicap the championship. “It'll probably take three or four weeks before you have those five or so guys who seem to be on a streak,” Kahne said.